


Continuation of Hollow_VAs A Mission With A Charming Spy on YouTube.

by ThiccDiccEnergy



Category: Hollow_VA
Genre: ASMR Continuation, Badass Reader, Multi, Reader-Insert
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-09-13
Updated: 2020-09-13
Packaged: 2021-03-06 22:54:07
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 4
Words: 6,129
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26436757
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ThiccDiccEnergy/pseuds/ThiccDiccEnergy
Summary: Continuation of Hollow_VAs A Mission With A Charming Spy on YouTube. Please listen to his work first, but this can be read as a stand alone piece. Description of the Spy is based on the art for the video thumbnail of that video.
Relationships: Charming Spy/You
Kudos: 4





	1. Drinks

“But, If you’ve got a little bit of time, I could always ask the barkeep to fetch us a few drinks.”

Last time you saw him you were kicking him into the Seine river after a wonderful night in Paris. To be fair it was only because he had been stupid enough to betray you and stay in the same country. If you betrayed him you would have been on the other side of the world before he could register your ‘Au revoir’, the lack of effort he put forward when he clearly knew that you would be out of detainment in under two hours was insulting. It had hurt a surprising amount to realize he thought so little of you. That was probably why you were angry enough to shoot him before giving him that nasty case of hypothermia (you did check on him in the hospital, covertly of course). 

You sighed and narrowed your eyes at him. After he had recovered from your little parting gift he had vanished like dew to the first rays of the sun. You were loathe to admit it, but he was the very best when it came to disappearing, good enough that you could only keep tabs on him sporadically in the time since then. He had clearly done well for himself since Paris, he had replaced that tooth you knocked out and his gray eyes were as sharp as ever. He was looking at you with a rakish tilt to the corner of his mouth that he knew you secretly liked. You couldn’t help the grin that pulled at your lips in return. 

“Buy me that prosecco we used to drink together and I suppose I could find a few moments to spare.” He immediately brightened, waving at the bartender and without having to order the bottle was in front of you alongside two glasses just a bit too nice for the cheap bar you found yourself in. 

“You cheeky scoundrel, are you this confident with all your ex-partners?”

“The only one worth meeting again was you.” You scoffed, filling up your glass and lifting it to your nose to take a deep whiff, it brought back memories of a blanket stretched out in the Kew Conservatory after hours. If you remembered correctly, it had been in the midst of the orchid festival and he had surprised you with an illegal night under all those flowers. 

“I doubt that, might I bring up a little encounter I was so unfortunate to witness where a...Miss Violet blew our cover in front of an entire restaurant of unsavory characters because you wham-bam-thank you ma’amed and left her hopelessly in love with you.” the look of distaste on his face was enough to send you into peals of laughter. “Ah, the good old days.” You leaned your elbows onto the counter and traced the rim of your glass with a finger, discreetly dipping your nail into the pale liquid. The color changing polish you wore didn’t indicate poison, and you took a long sip. He took his cue from you and poured himself a glass, promptly draining it and going back for more.

“You only ever bring up the worst memories when recalling our time together, is there still lingering resentment about Paris? Would it help if I told you that I’m sorry?” You smirk and edge a little closer to him. The chemistry between the two of you had always been eclectic, It was easy with him. No, easy wasn’t the right word; it was fearless with him. You never had to worry about an enemy of yours taking him down because he could take care of himself, and you never had to shy away from him in public places because no one could use him against you, they didn’t know his real name any more than you did. You could never have something like this with anyone else. You had missed it.

“It doesn’t help to say that you’re sorry because you aren’t sorry. I can understand that what happened was strictly business, I only tracked you down in the first place because I was insulted you didn’t bother to cover your tracks. Did you really think so little of me?” He smirked.

“Trust me, I was going to take the fullest precautions, but some loose ends got tangled and before I knew it you put a bullet in my thigh.” 

“I was aiming a little to the left, pity it was so dark.” he choked on his drink. 

“Pardon? Were you really…oh now don’t joke about that.” you laughed.

“Don’t worry, I do have some fondness for that particular part of you, it’s safe.” 

“Enough fondness to want to see me tonight?” He placed a hand over yours on the bar, intertwining your fingers in a touch that was a bit too intimate for people who were supposed to be nothing to each other.

“Enough to want to see you after we complete our jobs here.” You squeezed his hand. “For now it’s enough to catch up with an old friend.” He snorted and looked down into his glass. 

“Sounds like a plan, as long as we don’t talk about any of the bad memories we made together.” You leaned over and rested your head on his shoulder so that you could whisper into his ear. 

“That will be too easy, not a single memory that I made with you by my side could be considered bad.” He turned his head towards you, there was something in those sharp eyes of his that told you he had missed this as much as you did. 

“I do think that you should be careful.” His voice sounded a bit strained to your ears, a tiny crack in his otherwise cool demeanor. “If you continue to talk like this I might be encouraged to rush the job, and I hate when my work gets sloppy.” You locked eyes with him and downed your drink, noting how his gaze followed the flick of your tongue over a stray drop of prosecco that lingered at the corner of your lips. 

“Then I will take my leave.” You would have skipped back to your hotel room if you didn’t have a reputation to uphold.


	2. Mission

The job required...how did he put it again? ‘Infiltrating the inner circle’ you hated jobs like that, but no one could deny that you were too good at them to be sidelined. The man that would be your key to the kingdom was a hulking number that frequented a quaint café in London and had a secret love affair with the musical Waitress. You had watched it yourself for research purposes and had to admit that it wasn’t in bad taste. You put on a soft southern-American accent that was sure to stand out and situated yourself as ‘Angel’, a waiter that had moved to London as a teenager. You worked at the café for about a month when all of your efforts finally bore fruit. 

“Ben! What can I get for you today?” you could tell that today you would have him in your trap, he was more nervous than normal, fidgeting with his phone under the table. 

“Hello Angel, is there anything new on the menu?” you put a finger on your chin.

“Well I’m not supposed to let anyone know about this but for my favorite customer I suppose I could make an exception.” He perked up at the ‘favorite customer’ bit. You internally winced at how obvious he was, how this guy got the power he held you would never know. 

“Do tell.” He had relaxed a little, hopefully enough to finally ask you for your number, honestly, he had been dancing around it for days.

“Well, don’t tell anyone this but I have been testing out a recipe for a new pie, I could bring out your usual and a slice of that on the house if you want to give a little feedback.” 

“I’d love to.” You sigh in your head and head into the back with his order. He always got a mozzarella, chicken breast, basil and fresh tomato panini with a plain black coffee. This time when you served him you would be including a slice of chocolate mousse pie, a reference to the musical Ben seemed to covet. If this didn’t get the image in his head that ‘Angel’ liked him too then you were going to give up. 

“Here you are.” you served him his meal and gave him your softest, most meaningful smile. “Can I get anything else for you today Ben?” he stared at the pie for a moment. 

“You know how much I like the movie waitress don’t you?” Hook. Line. Sinker. 

“Why yes I do, I thought you might enjoy the reference.” you wrung your towel between your hands and looked at him through your eyelashes “do you like it?”

“I-Angel, will you go out with me?” the grin that stretched across your face this time wasn’t entirely fake. 

“I thought you’d never ask.”

Playing ‘Angel’ around Ben and all his dangerous friends was too easy. People who were powerful liked pretty things that praised them and acted like all the wealth flaunted to them made the men it belonged to gods. 

“My goodness Ben, I declare I’ve never seen such a fancy room in my life, it’s so beautiful. Are you sure I’m not underdressed?” that was bullshit, ‘Angel’ had been decked out in gifted dress clothes that probably cost more than a whole house. But, your character wouldn’t know that. 

“Not at all, you look amazing on my arm.” 

“Oh stop, I don’t look one mite near as handsome as you.” He chuckled and placed a small kiss on your hand. God you were so glad that this was the last day you were going to have to do this, he had already said I love you and it had only been three months.

“Your drinks.” A waiter offered you glasses of champagne. 

“Would you like one Angel?” Ben launched into an explanation about what the drink was. You knew he was just asking you to show off his knowledge about alcohol. You used his distraction to slip the copies of Ben's keys out of your sleeve and into the pocket of the waiter that was now pressing past you to move on to the next guest, in return you felt a weight settle into the inner lining of the ridiculous coat Ben insisted you wore. He swore it was because the nights could get chilly, and while that was true the extravagant furs made you positive that he just liked spending money on you. 

“That sounds so fancy!” He hands you a glass and you have to prevent yourself from throwing it back immediately. “Cheers Ben, to a new adventure.” God the way he looked at you was vomit inducing.   
“Angel, I have to meet up with some friends of mine in the other room, you stay here and enjoy yourself alright?”

“As long as you give me a kiss for luck.” you pucker up and force a giggle as he turns what was supposed to be a quick peck into a deep kiss. You took the opportunity to slip the listening device the waiter from earlier had delivered to you into his pocket. They checked for devices at the door, luckily there had been three stashed away in this room for weeks. You wave to Ben and smile sweetly, even blowing him a kiss to sell the picture. As soon as the door to the meeting room closed behind him and his associates you almost groaned in relief and slipped away in the direction of the bathroom. You didn’t actually go to the bathroom, but instead approached the guard watching a hallway off to your left, faking drunkenness. 

“Ex-excuse meh.” you slurred your words a little “where's the bathroom, I think I’m going to-” you curl in on yourself and fake wretch. Pretending to throw up was a sure way to make someone jump.   
“Oh jesus!” he approached where you were leaning heavily against the wall. “I-just walk with me, I’ll get you to the bathroom!” he reached out for you, but didn’t even get to touch you. You stood up and hit him with a modified cattle prod that delivered enough current to knock him out or kill him. You didn’t particularly care which. You got to work dragging his dead weight down the hall before he could hit the ground. You ducked into the first door you came across and dumped him into a limp pile. You were pretty sure he would be fine, maybe. You start stripping off the too-expensive clothes you had been forced into for the event and held your hand out to the figure that was nearly invisible in the shadowy corner of the room. 

“Did you bring what I asked you for?” he hummed and tossed a bag at you, not even pretending to look away as you shrugged out of your outer clothes. You were wearing compression shorts and a tank top under everything, he looked disappointed when he realized you wouldn’t be getting naked for him anytime soon. He knew full well that there was a strict fuck-free policy in place when an operation was in action. You hadn’t canoodled on a job since an unfortunate incident in Moscow that he was all too aware of, he had been the other half of the guilty party. You pulled on the outfit in the bag and tucked the familiar weight of your handgun into the waistband of your pants. 

“Did you put the safety on?” you took his jab in stride.

“Please, I know you well enough to know that the safety was on when you handed it to me.”

“I have to be wary, that’s the same gun you shot me with.” 

“It’s the same type of gun, the one I shot you with is sitting at the bottom of the Susquehanna river.”

“You were in D.C? “

“I’ll never tell.” You button the cuffs to your uniform and smooth the lapels. It was one of the butler uniforms for the mansion, perfectly in your size. “Did you swipe my measurements?”  
“Correction, I bought your measurements.”

“You could have just asked, it would have saved you more than a pretty penny.” 

“Where's the fun in that?”

“The fun in that is saving the man you bought my measurements from. If he sold me out I will have to take my revenge.” He approached you, holding up the tie for your uniform with a smug look on his handsome face. You debated punching him, but decided that you wanted both of his gray eyes open to be focused on you when you got to...later. You let him loop the tie around your neck and tie it professionally, ignoring how his fingertips lingered on the visible skin of your throat. 

“I don't think you’ll do anything too drastic to him.” he adjusted the tie, running his finger under your collar to make sure it wasn’t too tight. 

“And why is that?” you checked yourself in the mirror and nodded approvingly. 

“Because he sold to me, not someone else.” he walked up behind you in the mirror, ghosting his hands over your sides and tugging your jacket down so that it lay crisp over your shoulders. 

“You really are full of yourself, I’m almost tempted to stab him just to prove you wrong.” you turned in his hold, putting you face to face, barely an inch apart. 

“But you won’t.” at his retort you grinned. 

“I won’t. It’s not like I don’t have your measurements anyway.” you leaned forward and pressed your lips to the corner of his mouth, feathering your tongue out to graze over his plump top lip. His breath caught and he froze. You pulled back and smirked at him, gliding your hands up to his tie and pulling it flush to his throat, just a touch too tight. “See you out there.” You stepped around him and were out the door before he recovered, as you exited you could barely hear his whispered ‘damn’, and grinned in a way that was positively evil. You couldn’t wait for this to be over. 

Three hours later Angel was dead. Well not entirely dead, Ben was passed out in the bed he planned on sharing with you, knocked out with a little something-something in his eighth glass of excessively expensive champagne. You had taken him to the room and got him ready for bed like the doting partner you had so diligently played. He was so out of it that he didn’t even wake when ‘Angel’ slipped out of the room to use the bathroom down the hall in their suite. The cameras clearly captured a man in a ski mask clamping a cloth over ‘Angels’ face and dragging the poor soul out of the room. You kicked off one of your shoes in the ‘struggle’ and did your best to really sell it. Your disappearance was a necessity, the information gathered from the meeting led you to believe that Ben would be selling his shares in the illegal trade at a certain port up river in order to consolidate his business and focus on grabbing power in the city that ‘Angel’ lived in. 

He had revealed his plans to marry you, yes, MARRY you during the meeting, and was hoping to spend more time with his spouse and less time traveling across the country to his various business ventures. Unfortunately for Ben you would not be marrying anyone anytime soon. 

Your clients had an invested interest in the maintenance of trade coming through that particular port. Without Ben and his people, income from that location would crumple, if not completely stop (he was one of the smarter criminals out there). 

So, something terrible had to happen to you, and you had to make it look like his competitors were the ones responsible. You would feel bad for Ben if there weren’t dozens of people worldwide longing for their ‘Angel’ equivalent.

The problem arose when you were dumped into the back of a van that didn’t hold your coworkers, but instead six masked strangers. You knew they were strangers because none of your coworkers would every wear cologne on the job. 

“Fuck.” you whispered under your breath, furious at the turn of events. However it wasn’t a complete disappointment, the night was turning out to be a lot more interesting than you expected.


	3. Meet Me

You were waiting for him on the balcony of your hotel. He was late. The hotel you were enjoying was luxurious, and you could only say that your stay there wasn’t entirely on the books. You were wrapped in a blanket to protect yourself from the chill and were sipping at a glass of whiskey from the expensive decanter in the room. It was well after midnight when the sliding door to your balcony finally opened. 

“Good evening, would you care for some company.” you cast your gaze over to him. His uniform from earlier was rumpled, and he had a nasty bruise forming on his jaw. He sat in the chair next to you with a wince and a groan. You poured him a glass of whiskey with one hand and threw a corner of the blanket over him with the other. You didn’t ask about the mission. 

“Nice eye.” his hot fingers brushed against the swollen skin of your bruise, so severe it almost closed your eye entirely. 

“Nice jaw.” you returned the touch, gently dragging the pads of your fingertips down the vivid blotch of color. You leaned over, handing him the glass and giving him a soft kiss. “I also have this.” you hold out one of the bags of frozen peas you had been using to ice your face, wrapped in a towel to protect your skin from getting wet. 

“Thanks.” Almost in sync, you both raise your ice bags to your faces. 

“The city looks great.” it did, it was twinkling with lights and there were almost no cars to blare out and break the silence. 

“It’s beautiful.” After so long dancing around each other someone might think that everything would come to a boil. Instead it was like a thick snowfall, pressing down on you cozy and slow. Your hand found his under the shared blanket, intertwining your fingers and holding tight. He held out his glass for a refill, you obliged. “Did you eat yet? Too much will make you sick.” 

“Not yet.” 

“I have some pasta in the fridge, If it’s been awhile since you last ate I also have some stuff for a quick smoothie, something light on the stomach.” His head fell onto your shoulder.

“What would I do without you?” 

“You’d probably be vomiting in some dark alley, or dead in L.A.” He hummed a laugh and burrowed into your neck, taking a deep breath of the eucalyptus and honey scent that came from the fancy hotel soap. 

“Long time since I thought about L.A.”

You hummed in response. 

“A smoothie sounds good, but later, let’s just stay like this for a while.” his arm came up around your shoulders, pulling you impossibly closer. 

“Yeah, later.” you snuggle into him and bring your still entangled hands to your mouth, brushing a kiss along the back of his knuckles. The night and the ice against your eye was cold, but he was warm, and for a moment you let everything go still and pretended that you knew the name of the man next to you. 

You had fallen into bed together the night before, he had barely managed to stay awake long enough to chug the smoothie you made him and scrub himself clean under shower jets that would have boiled your skin off. You had not been doing much better, but still had the facilities to flick off the lights before he wrapped all of his limbs around you and started to softly snore into your hair. 

It was a deep, dreamless, comfortable sleep unlike any you had experienced in ages. You should not have slept so well with someone that could easily become your enemy next to you. 

You woke up with him between your legs, you may have been too tired to think of doing anything last night, but a good night's sleep changed that.

He was nibbling at your hip when you were pulled out of your doze. You threw the covers back and revealed his lazy smile, those gray eyes shining mischievously as he pressed a burning kiss to the bare skin just above the band of your sweat pants. 

“Well that's one way to wake up in the morning.” You still felt the pull of sleep. Your voice was rough, and you wriggled your hips under his palms so that you could spread your legs a little wider. He settled comfortably between your thighs, sucking a hickey with half open eyes and a bite of teeth. You groaned and sighed. 

“You love it.” he teased, his breath fanning against your abdomen. You hummed in either appreciation or confirmation. 

“I do, but I would like it better if there were a few less layers.” He laughed and you took the opportunity to explode into motion, you wrapped your thighs around his head and twisted. The comforter ended up somewhere on the floor and you ended sitting on his chest, a knee on each side of his head. He was stunned for a few moments, but then smirked. His eyes narrowing in challenge. You returned the energy, and mischievously leaned back to palm him through his pants. He groaned.

“Not fair.” he panted, then pressed his mouth to the space between your legs and nuzzled, the heat of his breath was palpable even through your pants. 

“You’re never fair.” you yanked off your shirt and spun, turning yourself so that you could face his pants and tug them down. Just as you got them down enough for his dick to pop free, already hard, he completely reversed your positions, he swung off of you to rid himself of his clothes. You took your que and kicked off your sweats, leaving you both naked. He toppled you over as you reached for him. The two of you pressed together completely flush and began kissing with a passion that you could not describe in words.

The kiss started heated, so hot you thought it would burn you, but somehow, the rhythm took a turn. One moment you were licking into each others mouths, the next it was slow and sweet, like lazy summer rivers and honey sticks. You breathed each other in, eyes closed and lips leisurely against each other. You nibbled his top lip and grazed kisses onto him, breathing in the smell of fresh sheets that belonged to the moment. 

When you opened your eyes again you became a captive audience to the way he existed, to the way he flourished. He was caught in the early sun streaming through his window, his gray eyes turning to metal moons in the beam. He was ethereal. 

Once you separated he began creeping down your body, brushing his lips along your skin as he went. You couldn’t look away from him. He finally came to rest between your bare legs in a perfect reflection of how you had woken up that morning. He lifted your thighs over his shoulders, nibbling at one in the worshipful way that he always had. Your head fell back as he finally got to work, sucking at you and circling one lubed finger at your entrance. You didn’t see him get the lube and you didn’t care, because when he pushed his first finger in it was electric, he curled it and barely brushed against your sweet spot. You let out a heavy sigh and sunk farther into the pillows. 

“You’re really tight, has it been a while?” the last time you had sex was the night he tuned on you in Paris. You had been too busy since then, and too disinterested in anyone that offered. But you weren't going to tell him that.

“Yeah, it's been some time.” he hummed an affirmation and got back to sucking, sliding a second finger alongside the first. You threaded your fingers through his dark hair, pulling him closer to you and gently scratching his scalp in the way you knew he loved. You let your legs fall open wide for him when he pushed them off his shoulders to put a condom on. 

“Will you let me do it like this?” you normally rode him, preferring to set the pace. You knew that he was secretly a big fan of that position too, he loved watching you above him, teasing him with different speeds. 

“Why not.” you were feeling lazy that morning, and what you had in that moment was fragile, but so, so good. You were afraid to break it. 

He smiled at you in a way that made butterflies flutter through your bloodstream, you could almost call his expression adoring. He pressed one leg back toward your chest and urged the other to fall open farther, accommodating his hips as he aligned himself. He pushed in slowly, pressing his head to the crook of your neck as you enveloped him. His breath was caught in his throat, you put your hands on his face and pulled him up to press your lips together. He took your hands in his and meshed your fingers, pressing your arms down into the bed at the sides of your head. 

“You- you can move.” You gasped at the sensation of being so close. He pulled out and slowly pushed back in, your mouth falling open in a breathy sigh at the sensation. This was different, but a good different, this felt like more than sex, it was like...it was like the L word that you didn’t dare think about. 

It had been so long. The truth was that you hadn’t had sex with anyone else since he vanished because what you had with him was irreplaceable, and losing it had been crushing, it had hurt. You pushed those thoughts to the back of your mind and focused on the moment. He felt amazing, pressing deep each thrust. You made eye contact with him and couldn’t help the laugh that bubbled up. 

“What.” he stilled his hips for a moment, but you urged him on by wrapping a leg around his back. 

“Nothing, your bruise looks a little bit like Hawaii.” He laughed along with you and sped up his hips. You groaned as he hit the perfect spot and started moving your hips to meet him. 

“We should go to Hawaii.” 

“Only if we go island hopping.” He kissed you again with a smile on his face. 

“It’s a deal.” He gasped as you rolled your hips into him at the perfect angle. 

You fell back into the sensation of him with a vigor, when the pace started picking up you could do nothing but cling on for dear life. 

“Room service?” the knock on the door startled you from where you were- for lack of a better term- vigorously fucking against the wall. You make eye contact with him and quietly reply. 

“I didn’t order anything.” you silently communicated and exchanged a nod. You pulled on a robe and retrieved your gun from where it was stashed in the loveseat cushions. He gave you a judgmental look and you shrugged, already loading the gun. You were so familiar with the motions you didn’t even have to glance down at the sleek metal to get it ready to kill.

He looked through the peephole and motioned for you to stand down. You took up a position just out of view of the door. 

“Hello? Can I help you?” a very flustered man was standing outside of the door, he was young, and wearing the hotel's fancy uniform, a complete tuxedo that was (in your opinion) a little extra. 

“Yes, we received a noise complaint, your neighbors sent you a bottle of champagne and hope that you will keep it down in the future.” he blushed and motioned to the cart at his side, containing a wonderful bottle of champagne and some select snacks, among them were various juices, chocolates, and a few delectable looking breakfast pastries. You made eye contact with him and nodded, a smirk already on your face. You stowed the gun. 

“We’ll be sure to thank them for the gift, please come in.” he stepped aside and let the increasingly nervous employee into the room. You smiled at him and unceremoniously dropped your robe.   
“O-oh.” Your man put his hands on the employees shoulders. 

“So if they sent a gift over, does that mean you’re included.” The poor man turned bright red. How adorable. 

You fucked the cute employee on the balcony with his hands tied to the guardrail, then you took him inside and fucked him on the bed, then your man fucked him blindfolded against the wall while you made lunch. You took a break for lunch, then you fucked your man and made the cute guy you pulled into your threesome watch. You cleaned the cutie up in the shower and sent him off with a rumpled tie, a hefty tip, and hickies hidden just under his collar that were markers of the day he would never forget and never be able to repeat. You sighed and sunk down onto the welcoming lap of the one person that you would almost go so far to call your soulmate. 

“Can I have a sip of that?” At your request he handed over his cranberry spritzer, a good way to rehydrate after a workout, and you took a long drink. “Thanks.” you were on one of the many wide chairs on the balcony with his arms around you. It was a lovely day, and the sun was just starting to dip down below the horizon. 

“What do you want to do for dinner tonight? I know a good place that sells banh mi if you’re interested.” you were interested. 

“Sounds delicious.” you shared a smile, another kiss, and watched the sun go down in satisfied silence. 

You said goodbye at an ungodly hour of the night. He got into a car that pulled up in front of the hotel, and you took a taxi to the countryside where yours was waiting for you. You sighed and put your hands in your pocket, he had slipped you something as you kissed goodbye, thinking that he was being sneaky. It was a handwritten note, scrawled on a postcard of Dubai. 

“‘See you next time’, my god you are a cliché little Shakespeare.” you laughed to yourself in the driver's seat of your car. Next time he better have a real nice surprise in store to make up for the pure cheesiness of his little message. Despite your criticism you kept the card, you’d have to see if you were needed in Dubai anytime soon.


	4. Retirement

You settled in a penthouse on the outskirts of New York, you could have afforded one much more expensive, but you were happy with the trees outside your window and the rooftop garden that you doted on. You often went for long walks around the nearby parks, and you had made fast friends with the local rock climbing club, regularly meeting up with them to enjoy a few days with your hands on the stone. On Sundays you went to a shooting range and kept your skills sharp, afterwards you would swing by the store and pick up your weekly groceries. 

You hadn’t kept any contacts in the realm of your previous profession, one of the first rules of retirement was that you took your mass amounts of money and cut communication with everyone. You hadn't even told anyone of your exit, simply fading into the wind and letting them assume what they wanted. Sometimes though, you did have a sentimental thought or two. You were standing in the rooftop garden you had so carefully curated, sipping a cheap prosecco out of a glass that was a little bit too fancy for the brand. You had left him behind, but he was still a fond memory. You would carry him for the rest of your life. 

You swirled your drink in the glass. Smiling at it with what you knew was a sweet expression. Somehow, you were never sad when you thought of him, or at least you thought you weren’t. A glint caught your eye, your neighbor was out on his patio as well, nursing his own drink. You squinted through the leaves of the fake plant he had been watering for over a month. The green bottle beside his chair was achingly familiar, a certain brand of cheap prosecco. You laughed, and the sound drew his eyes to you. Your heart stuck in your throat and burned like a tiny star. 

Your neighbor and you had never had the chance to meet, you had always just missed each other, and the wall of honeysuckle you coaxed to life normally blocked your view of him when you both happened to be outside. You wished you had introduced yourself sooner because the man on the other terrace had gray eyes, you would know those gray eyes anywhere.

“Nice night for a drink, isn’t it.” you tried to keep the desperation out of your voice, you weren’t sure if you were successful. 

“Indeed, but you know, in my experience that brand is best when you drink it with company.” the voice he was using was slightly accented, you wondered if it was his real one. From your knowledge it was Welsh with maybe a touch of Irish, it fit him. 

“I’ve been told that I could be pretty good company, if that was an invitation.” you flirted back over the wrought iron fence that separated your properties. He smiled, wandering over and leaping across the gap between your balconies, uncaring of the fall below. He didn’t spill one drop of his drink. 

“Allow me to introduce myself, my name is Michael, Michael Glace.” he stepped close to you, wrapping his arms (drink still in hand) around your waist. 

“Nice to meet you, Michael.” You set your glass down on the table by your hip, took his face in your palms and kissed him. He tasted like cheap prosecco and the future you never thought you would have.


End file.
